The invention relates to control of the production of multiple articles by means of centralized information received by bar-code reading. It relates particularly to the control of various work stations and workers, each destined to fabricate or part-fabricate a certain article and to inform a central authority of the amount of work carried out within a given time interval.
In many industries parts of a whole assembly are manufactured by hand or machines at several work stations and are finally assembled in additional work stations by other workers. A typical example is the garment industry, where garment parts, such as sleeves, trouser legs, collars and so on are fabricated by workers using sewing and other machines and where the work is distributed in a manner that every part arrives at the assembly station or stations in quality and quantity required for an even flow of work. It will be understood that intricate parts which require more working time are distributed to more work stations than simple parts which can be made in a shorter period, and it is highly important that these operations be minutely controlled to prevent bottlenecks on one hand and idling of workers on the other.
The simplest and most expensive way of controlling product is by means of an inspector who walks from station to station and writes down the quantity of articles manufactured and the time taken therefore. This way has been mostly superseded, at least in modern plants, by attaching to every batch to be completed a label containing a bar-code defining the kind and quantity of the article to be prepared at each station. Upon finishing a batch the worker passes the label underneath a scanner which is connected to a processing unit, the latter transmitting the gathered information to a central processing unit.
This method is exact and provides the required information in real time, but its main drawback is the high cost of the data collecting equipment. It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide and transmit the information regarding completion of a certain work task within the prescribed time for immediate recording at the control office and for storage for future reference.
It is another object to reduce the cost of gathering information by conversion of the optical signal provided by the bar-code slip into digital information by means of a central multi-channel detector, and by subsequent conversion of the digital information into alpha-numeric information by means of a central processing unit.
It is another important object to provide equipment for the task at relatively low cost, in order to enable even small establishments to purchase and install the production control means according to the present invention.
And it is a final object to make operation of the bar-code transmission as simple as possible, enabling every worker to handle the equipment at ease without the requirement of previous and lengthy training.